Tags Current Affairs

Issue

Scientists have been able to decode the century-old mystery behind the changes in the earth’s magnetic field, especially its weakening over the Pacific.

 

Background

The topic has been a subject of curiosity since the 1930s when the fact about the weakening of the magnetic field was first established.

 

Details

• The study revealed that the core flows like the winds in the atmosphere or currents in the ocean that maintain the Earth’s magnetic field was weaker under the Pacific.

• The planetary-scale current that hangs close to the equator in the Atlantic region was deflected to higher latitude in the Pacific region that resulted in the weakening of the magnetic fields.

• While the scientific model answers the reason for weakening magnetic fields, it poses new questions about the occurrence of those phenomena.

• The earth is in the phase called the Brunhes Magnetic Chron when the South Magnetic Pole is in the Northern Hemisphere.

• While the Scientists have long known that the magnetic pole moves, the Earth's magnetic field have been observed to be weakening in strength by 5% every 100 years.

• NASA scientists predict that the magnetic field may be near zero in another few thousand years at this rate.

• Additionally, Scientists at the European Space Agency are using data from ESA’s Swarm constellation to improve their understanding of the weakening magnetic fields stretching from Africa to South America across an area known as the ‘South Atlantic Anomaly.’